New Animated Web Series - How to Monetize?

[JPO]

In an ill-advised effort to capitalize on the writers strike, my brother and I have just launched The Super Story Chop Shop. A web series dedicated to the parodying of history’s favorite legends and greatest myths. Here’s how it works:
1. Take stories which are perfectly awesome as-is.
2. Chop ‘em up into one crazy bit.
The End

Our first episode, Blackbeard’s Delight: The Real Story of Blackbeard, has just been uploaded and now that the content is there, we're looking for new ways to monetize our series. Right now we're going with the good ol' standards of cafepress, paypal donations, sponsorship, and the ever so awesome project wonderful.

The thing is that video web series' seem to be a relatively new thing and I feel that there are some really great ways to monetize that I'm blatantly missing.

Thoughts or advice on monetization (or the show in general) would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your time,
Matt

[MASapparel]

Please do not use Cafe Press.

I screen print and design and will help you out just so you dont use cafepress. There shirts are really bad quality and all heat transfers not screen printed.

Shoot me an email and I can work out a good deal with you on shirts.

info@makeascenenow.com

[JPO]

Thanks for the offer MASapparel, but I've been using cafepress for some time (I AM X) and rely on them for a chunk of my income. I haven't yet had a bad experience, or a single return.

Though if you could provide your website and some details as to why I should drop cafepress, I may reconsider.

[veikoh]

Convert them to 3GP format and go to some mobile distributor portal.

[MASapparel]

Well screen printing is rather cheap so you can get shirts made for around 3-4 bucks a piece and then sell how you would like. We can add a store section to your site and you will look more official then linking to a cafepress page.

Send me an email at info@makeascenenow.com and we can talk about a site.

[JPO]

MASapparel, I did some research after your post and agree it's not smart business move to stick with cafepress. Right now our schedule is quite packed with the production of our second episode and preparations to begin marketing the series, but once things have settled down I'll definitely get in touch. I had no idea those bastard's margins were so high! Thanks again for raising the point.

veikoh, with such buzz around the mobile market I'm going to owe you big time if this pans out. I don't suppose you've heard good things about any specific distributor...

[BusinessAdviser]

Don't be so greedy. Get a couple clips out there on youtube.

First, this will be the most efficient and effective way for you to market it.

Second, the response will be a good indicator of the level of interest in it, and thus the opportunity for monetization.

[BusinessAdviser]

Additionally, put a short 1-2 minute version on youtube rather than the full length version. Make it very quick and easy for someone to view it and want more. Don't make them sit through such a long clip to determine whether they enjoyed the clip, as it won't happen.

Think of a movie trailer. THAT's what you want to put up on youtube.

[veikoh]

JPO

Mobile market is huge especially in Europe. There is no need for distributor anymore here and payout rates has been increased up to 75% using Bango billing. US is far behind even Bango can bill most of the US operators. Bango is same kind of billing system for mobiles than PayPal is for the net. However people arte more likely to aggregate small cost to their monthly bill rather than giving their credit card details. Using paypal for 70 pence per clip billing the paypal will take also 20 pence minimum similar to mobile billing. Other is all about marketing. If you will get over 1M people to watch your clip, you have earned laround half a million depending your sales price.
BTW, I have some contacts to US distributors if you want?
They carry mostly animated gifs, but also 3GP but not yet SVG.

[JPO]

Jonathan, thanks for the advice, you really made some really great points.

I've heard that you lose 10% of your audience for every 30 seconds your video's over 1 minute on Youtube, so I couldn't agree more with your last comment. I hadn't even considered the idea of releasing trailers, so I gotta tip my hat to you for that.

Fortunately, this first episode wasn't created as a flagship, but primarily to test our animation and editing. We will not be marketing the series until the 2nd or 3rd episode for a variety of reasons, one of which you covered.

Finally, I'm not sure how "don't be so greedy" applies as
A) this is a business forum for the young and ambitious
B) you can't have the pie you don't reach for
&
C) I'd like to have a broad range of monetization options prior to the show's success (or failure) as it's somewhat relevant to the business plan.

Thanks again for the excellent advice!


veikoh, just sent a PM. Thanks for your thoughts!

[BusinessAdviser]

By "don't be so greedy," I mean that you should not make the same mistake that many people make, and which you indicated that you were headed toward.

1) It is always better to supply a product to satisfy a need that already exists but is being unmet. Many efforts to monetize your work will not satisfy this criteria if not done right. So how do you do it right? How do you create that need so that you can satisfy it?

2) Give your consumers something of value first, something that creates that need or demand, before asking them to spend money. Throw out a few short, 30-second or 1-minute clips, let them disseminate, and then look for opportunities.

However, understand that you should have a marketing strategy already in place, in a sense, when putting the clips up. This will enable you to put your website at the bottom of the clip, or at the start of it, to give consumers a means of finding more info.

Hope this helps.